Who's the father? Could a Paternity Test be the Answer

If you wonder who the real father of your child actually is, you are just one amongst thousands – no need to feel alone. The American Association of Blood Banks, which sets standards for DNA testing laboratories, gives some astounding figures – the number of paternity tests carried out in 2012 alone runs into thousands and thousands in the USA.

Of course, paternity doubts do manage to plague us and persecute us, drumming themselves into our heads and popping up every time we think we have managed to suppress them. Well why not relieve yourself of any doubts with a simple paternity DNA test?

Things cannot be easier and more accurate than they are in this day and age – all you need is a DNA sample from the alleged father and a sample from the child. Send these to a laboratory for testing and wait for the results. Now next question is getting your DNA test. Where does one begin? Well, with online companies offering DNA testing services getting a paternity could not be quicker or more convenient. You order your test, they send you a kit, you collect the samples and send them back and they send you the results.

Most paternity testing samples are collected with oral swabs and various companies operate online across South Africa including International Biosciences and homeDNAdirect. The alleged father, child and the mother need to submit saliva samples collected by rubbing swabs inside the mouth. But you also have the option of carrying the test out with maximum discretion: do you have any hair samples, cigarette ends or toothbrushes that can tested? This will save you having to even let anybody know that you are carrying out a test.

What about some other ways of confirming paternity?

Grandparentage testing: If grandparents think they may be not the real grandparents of their grandchildren and that hence, their son (the father of their grandchild) has been duped into acknowledging paternity of the child, they may do a grandparentage test. If the test results show they are not related to their grandchild, it means that their son is not the biological father either. Grandparentage tests are normally carried out with both the grandmother and the grandfather although testing just one grandparent and the grandchild/ grandchildren is possible. The chances of an inconclusive result are higher if only one grandparent takes part and is in fact, only recommended if there are no other alternative DNA tests that can be carried out.

Aunt/ uncle testing: Another way of confirming the paternity of a child is by testing the siblings of the alleged father and comparing their DNA with that of their nieces of nephews (In other words testing the DNA of the aunts or uncles of the alleged father’s children and comparing this DNA to the DNA of the alleged father’s children). The test results will show how likely it is that the tested relatives are in fact the blood aunt or blood uncle of the child/ children.

Are you still pregnant? You can even discover who the baby daddy is before you even have his baby. You can in fact carry out a paternity test while you are still expecting. Moreover, whilst before you might have shuddered away from procedures like amniocentesis, you do not even need to consider them nowadays as non invasive prenatal paternity tests have evolved; these tests are done with simple blood samples. Time to get the ball rolling for a paternity test?